Explaining natural wonders (Animals)

by dhw, Saturday, September 24, 2016, 12:15 (908 days ago)@ David Turell

dhw: So if we follow your reasoning, God preprogrammed or personally taught the frillfin goby to form and remember cognitive maps so that life could go on until humans appeared. I will never understand why you cannot bear the thought that all these creatures may have the intelligence to work such things out for themselves.

DAVID: As you yourself note God may have given them the intelligence, while I say God DID give them the intelligence in the form of onboard instructions.

You are again playing linguistic games, which you continue to do in the rest of your post. You know very well that by the intelligence to work things out for themselves I mean their own autonomous intelligence, not God's instructions.

DAVID: I've never said cells do not act intelligently. They do so by using intelligent instructions/information they contain.

The theistic choice, then, is between 1) your God instructing the frillfin goby on how to create cognitive maps so that life could go on until humans appeared, and 2) your God giving the frillfin goby the ability to work it out on its own without any further input from God in the form of guidance/guidelines, computer programmes, intelligent instructions/ information. I will never understand why you insist on 1) and cannot bear the thought of 2). I hope that is clear now.